


wide awake and wonderstruck

by radiowrittenheart



Series: Moonriver Week 2017 [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: 5+1 Things, Drabble Collection, F/M, Falling In Love, Inspired By Tumblr, Pre-Canon, Teenagers, just... take this oml
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 13:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/pseuds/radiowrittenheart
Summary: Five times River fell in love with Moon and everything she was, plus the first time she opened herself up to him, fully and wholly.





	wide awake and wonderstruck

**Author's Note:**

> i legit stopped all my other projects to do this because i would be damned if i wasn't gonna participate in the shipweek i was hosting so h e r e you go
> 
> (ps: if you wanna get in on this shit here's the link — https://moonriverweek2017.tumblr.com/post/164877796920/its-official )

**_first._ **

_{she touches you and you light on fire. your wrist blazes where her fingers meet your skin. the burns don’t show, but it’s hard to breathe with ash in your lungs. it’s so hard to breathe. you’re suffocating daily.}_

 

“River Johansen,”

“Moon Butterfly,”

He bowed and she curtsied. They knew each other by name for so long, but now was the first meeting... well, aside from that mess that was a battlefield. Moon gave a curt smile, and River extended his hand for a shake. She hesitated, clearly shy— so much that she was glancing to her mother, almost asking for permission. Queen Comet bit back a giggle and nodded.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Moon said, shaking his hand.

River wanted to reply. He wanted to eagerly shake back, smile ear to ear, express how excited he was to meet the Crown Princess of Mewni — instead, he just blushed and stammered out the most pathetic ‘ _hello_ ’ that seemed quite ridiculous and not very regal at all.

Instead of reacting negatively, like he had feared, Moon crinkled her nose and grinned at him.

And that was just the beginning.

 

 

**_second._ **

_{it hurts to watch her. she shines. she’s brighter than the sun, she’s too beautiful for your eyes. it’s hard to look at her. it’s even harder to look away from her. you’re going blind.}_

 

Everyone was dressed in shades of black and blue during the mixed reception. A funeral and a coronation, all in one. Certainly not Mewni’s first, but it had been many years since the last one of these tragically beautiful events. Donned in an elegant gown that was a dozen shades of grey and blue, the grand golden crown perched upon her head, Moon faced all of Mewni as their new Queen. How could she look so beautiful when tragedy has just struck?

Meanwhile, the former Queen was concealed in a pure ivory coffin.

Even as she wept, perfect little streams of tears trailing down her cheeks, across the hot pink diamonds that seemed too cheerful for such a solemn time, Moon was stunning. How was that fair?

Not many words were said, too many Mewmans broken over the unexpected death of Mewni’s ‘modern’ Queen Comet. Now, they faced a new era, an era of Moonlight. And so, as an aging butler read the coronation decree, Moon stood with Mina on one side and Glossaryck on the other.

River watched from a set of bleachers on the side.

He wanted nothing more than to rush over, hug Moon and tell her that she would be fine. That she would be an magnificent Queen, one like Mewni had never seen before.

Yet all he could do was awkwardly make eye contact with her, and when they had done so, he nodded.

Moon gave a tiny, sad smile in spite of it all.

Despite the massive tragedy, there was still a sliver of hope.

 

 

**_third._ **

_{your ears are tuned to her voice. you could pick her out in a sea of thousands. her voice makes pretty singers who sing pretty songs sound dull. her voice makes everything else sound ugly.}_

 

“Oh my gosh, River!”

She usually yelled his name. From joy, out of desperation, in surprise… and everytime, it shook his soul awake. But this time, she’s elated to see him— her face worn with exhaustion, though. Just two days ago, she was a Princess but now, she’s a Queen and her hands are shaking, she’s about to drop her Wand. She smiled, and only he’s close enough to notice the tears brimming her eyes, and she lunged in for _a hug_. Of all things.

“You’re alright?” he whispered, just low enough for no one else to hear.

“Yes,” she mumbled into the crook of his neck.

“I… I thought the Lizard—”

“ _No._ I’m not going anywhere,”

Her voice was soft, hollow and distant, despite the closeness of their brief embrace. The embrace seemed to last for so long, he never wanted to let go. But he did. He had to. Moon gave a curt smile, patting him on the shoulder before facing the High Commission.

He never felt so happy and so doomed at the same time.

He had a crush on the Queen.

 

 

**_fourth._ **

_{the color of her eyes is blue enough to drown in. she is turning you into a clichéd love-wrecked being. you’re drowning, always sinking. down, down, down.}_

 

Perhaps it was either fate or some hilarious joke from the universe that his favorite color had always been blue. Johansen kingdom colors were grey and green, yet River found himself lost in shades of blue.

And his favorite shade had to have been the indescribable blue that made up Moon’s eyes, for it wasn’t just one blue but seemingly all of them at once. Dark like the ocean tides when she was tired and worried, sometimes bright and alive as a springtime sky without clouds. They were usually somewhere in between those colors during the times she looked at him with tenderness.

And through the generations, the main Butterfly family color was blue.

The suit he was fitted into, a soft silky blue.

The lights above them, shining down while they danced, were white and blue.

It was a good thing she was leading their waltz — not just because she was taller, not just because that Butterfly women took charge of _everything_ , but because River was too lost in the sea around him to focus on anything else.

“Thank you for being my date, by the way,” she murmured. “I’m glad you’re here,”

He was aware of Moon’s hesitance to accept a courtship with him. But nonetheless, she had been diving in, indulging him, and he could tell… something was there.

She smiled more around him. She laughed and told jokes. She was affectionate and soft with him.

“So am I,” River sighed.

Everything around him was blue, a color some would write off as miserable and lonely, but he had never felt happier.

 

 

**_fifth._ **

_{you know her. you love her. through a thousand lifetimes, across millions of stars, you’d find her, you’d never leave her. you love her, til death do you part.}_

 

He considered himself the luckiest man in any of the multiverses to be with her. To hold her hand when she was about to crack from too much stress and pressure, to sneak into her bedroom quarters late at night so they could sit on the roof of the castle under the stars, to pick her up and twirl her around when they hugged…

So this was what falling in love felt like.

River had let Moon know it too. Even if she only blushed and thanked him when he said those three special little words to her.

She was his world, and there was nothing to stop it. He was helpless, but in the best way possible.

And she had her own little ways of expressing her feelings. Intertwining their fingers under the tabletop during royal court. Stealing his cape, the one that spanned generations of Johansens, and wearing it for weeks until it smelled like her. Doodling her mark, her diamonds, on his hand with the ink from her quill.

But his favorite way?

“I love you,” River murmured, as they stood on her balcony together, another night under the starlight.

Moon’s diamonds glowed a bright hot pink, a color that almost didn’t seem real, and she leaned down ever-so-slightly to kiss his forehead. She giggled softly, and a soft sigh escaped her.

She was content and happy like this. And as for him, he was blessed and beyond overjoyed.

 

 

**sixth.**

**_{she loves you, too.}_ **   


He had waited for a while to hear it back. And some part in the depths of his heart always knew she reciprocated the feelings, she just wasn’t vocal about it.

He certainly did not expect her to say it while crying in his arms.

“I love _you_ , River,” Moon practically sobbed over the storm’s rumbling. “I’m sorry if I ever made you think otherwise. I— I never meant to hurt you,” She hugged him tight, burying her face into his soft blonde hair, running her hands through it and not minding the rain.

“Moon,” River whispered, wrapping his arms around her in a hug.

This was perhaps the most intimate, the closest they had been since the start of their relationship.

There had been hugs, yes, but this was an embrace as if they let go, they would lose everything that had.

“I love you, River Johansen,” she murmured. “You were, _you are_ my salvation. You’re everything I could have ever wanted, I— I don’t want to know where I would be without you,”

“Moon,” he repeated. “If you have to— if you have no choice but to marry someone else,”

“No,” she persisted. “I could never.”

The past three years they had grown. Not just in age, but together, and they formed something beautiful. Blissful. Something that couldn’t be explained with just words. That explained why the strict, stoic and serious _Moon Butterfly_ was so flustered. She cried; perhaps from joy, from frustration, from _everything_.

“I love you,” she said once more, practically gasping for air. “Never, ever doubt that, please…” She was basically blabbering, repeating herself, overcome with emotion, with how real everything felt, how vulnerable she was now—

River cupped Moon’s face, staring deep into her shimmering periwinkle eyes.

“Moon,” he said softly once more, before pressing their lips together.

Some ridiculous cliché from the universe must have caused the thunder and lightning. Moon seized up for only a moment, she was always so awkward about these things, but she let River’s strength and sweetness take over. He lifted her up, she gasped in the kiss, arms draped around his neck. The kiss was give and take, back and forth like a dance before she pulled away, smiling like she hadn’t smiled before.

“I love you too,” River whispered, his voice so soft, so gentle, it could have made Moon melt.

“I’ll figure something out,” Moon gasped, the rain ruining her perfect updo. “For us.”

River blushed, gently putting Moon back on her feet. “There’s an us?” he said softly.

“Yes,” she stressed, a breathless laugh escaping her. “River, there has _always_ been an us. And there always will be,”

**Author's Note:**

> comments are always appreciated! c:


End file.
